Matthew, shown here in his deluxe woodshop might be a bit young to be called a geezer, and the shop might be a bit better organized than most. It is new and was just featured in the annual Tools and Shops issue of Fine Woodworking. But give it a bit of time. It will get messy with use, and then get cleaned and messy again. A shop -- even the perfect shop, the dream shop -- is a shifting, evolving thing, within and beyond fixed boundaries. A shop, even when brought to reality within four walls is like the dreams we have at night. But a woodshop is a dream within a dream within a dream. Once we build a shop, then we dream of the things to put in it or to make in it. And then we dream ourselves in new and expanding form as we discover and learn new things, become finer and more creative craftsmen and make things that populate the dreams of others. Lao Tzu dreamed he was a butterfly, but he awakened unsure. Was he a man dreaming of being a butterfly, or was he a gentle winged thing dreaming itself a man? These are the things you can discover in a woodshop.

Matthew was my editor in writing my newest book Basic Box Making. Congratulations Matthew on your beautiful new shop. More of Matthew's new shop can be seen in the Winter 2007/2008 issue of Fine Woodworking Magazine.